In California, It’s U.S. vs. State Over Marijuana

Matthew Davis has an MBA. He decided to start a business in an emerging market - medical marijuana cultivation. He paid his taxes, his staff, he got his permits. Yet the U.S. Justice Dept. indicated Mr. Davis 6 months ago for cultivating marijuana.

The United States attorney for the Eastern District of California, Benjamin B. Wagner, a 2009 Obama appointee, wants Mr. Davies to agree to a plea that includes a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, calling the case a straightforward prosecution of “one of the most significant commercial marijuana traffickers to be prosecuted in this district.”

At the center of this federal-state collision is a round-faced 34-year-old father of two young girls. Displaying a sheaf of legal documents, Mr. Davies, who has no criminal record, insisted in an interview that he had meticulously followed California law in setting up a business in 2009 that generated $8 million in annual revenues. By all appearances, Mr. Davies’ dispensaries operated as openly as the local Krispy Kreme, albeit on decidedly more tremulous legal ground.

“This is not a case of an illicit drug ring under the guise of medical marijuana,” Mr. Peters wrote. “Here, marijuana was provided to qualified adult patients with a medical recommendation from a licensed physician. Records were kept, proceeds were tracked, payroll and sales taxes were duly paid.”

The case illustrates the struggle states and the federal government are now facing as they seek to deal with the changing contours of marijuana laws and public attitudes toward the drug. Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for recreational use last year, and are among the 18 states, and the District of Columbia, that currently allow its medical use.

For anyone who wants to claim the current Democratic administration has only gone after those who were not in compliance with CA law over the last 5 years - well, you're wrong. or you're lying.

How anyone can enact such clearly biased application of the law... well, it reminds me of Adam Swartz and the recent observation that judicial overreach can be a bad thing.

In this case, I have to wonder how a man who thanked his pot dealer in his high school senior class note can turn around and go after people who are legally operating within state law.

Obama knows the war on marijuana is a lie. He needs to get on the right side of this issue and stop pandering to the anti-science goon squad that fears their jobs will be in danger if they have to focus on real criminals - like the drug cartels that were laundering money through those banks that got a slap on the hand.

IT IS TIME TO SET THIS RIGHT.

No more prosecution of ANYONE for marijuana-related charges.

Decriminalize at the federal level and remove marijuana from the drug schedule. That's the right thing to do.

2. States that allow initiatives on their ballots

are states where the people in this nation have been allowed to change shitty law regarding cannabis.

State legislatures haven't been all that quick to join the 21st century - it's only when they have been FORCED to RECOGNIZE the will of the people via ballot measures that change has happened.

Even then legislators have tried to screw their own constituents. Arizona had to vote on medical marijuana more than once and had to also vote to prohibit their legislators from undoing what they had done.

Politicians, on the whole, are not that innovative or interesting, imo. They uphold the status quo until they are forced to join the new status quo.

anyone who thinks politicians are leaders on just about any issue have not been paying attention.

The exclusive rights to apply the cannabinoids found in marijuana as therapeutic agents awarded by the U.S. federal government to the firm KannaLife only apply to one specific medical condition, KannaLife's CEO told Toke of the Town Monday night.

Dean Petkanas, chief executive officer at KannaLife Sciences, told us that the exclusivity applies only for the development and sale of cannabinoid based therapeutics as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for use in the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy.

See it's about protecting that patent. Sounds bizarre? do you think the feds care if some bloke gets high? ROFL

always: Follow The Money

Check out what the Feds are doing to Californians:

Federal Medical Marijuana Prisoners and Cases

Pending Cases in California and Elsewhere

January 9, 2013 - Former South Lake Tahoe medical marijuana dispensary operator Gino DiMatteo pleaded guilty to a single count of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, as part of a plea agreement. On August 31, 2012, US agents say they found 5 pounds of processed marijuana and 15 pounds of “shake,” at DeMatteo's home. Also found were various edible marijuana products, a scale, pay/owe sheets and a heat sealing machine. DiMatteo listed himself as receiving $7,000 biweekly in one of the documents found. He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller on April 17. The maximum penalty for possession with the intent to distribute marijuana is 30 years in prison. Source.

According to the terms of the plea agreement, Smith agreed to a sentence of not less than 5 years in prison and not more than 7 years and 3 months in prison. His sentencing date is scheduled for Jan. 25.

All are pending sentencing. Read more.
October 25, 2012 - The U.S. Attorney's Office announced the arrests of 12 people associated with a chain of pot shops in Southern California. Source.

October 11, 2012 - OAKLAND SUES FEDS WHILE LONG BEACH RAIDS 7 DISPENSARIES
In contrasting moves, the city of Oakland has sued the federal government to stop its forfeiture actions against city-regulated dispensaries, while Long Beach has joined the feds to arrest 40 dispensary workers and is threatening to arrest more.

October 12, 2012 - Aaron Sandusky, whose G3 Holistic collective had storefronts in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley, was found guilty on two felony counts of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute charges. The jury deadlocked on four other charges having to do with operating a location involved with drugs. Judge Anderson declared a mistrial on those counts. Sandusky was sentenced to 10 years in prison on January 7, 2013. He plans to appeal.

Sandusky's brother Keith and four other former employees of G3 Holistic have pleaded guilty in the case. They are awaiting sentencing.
Read more.

G3 co-founder John Leslie Nuckolls II testified at Aaron's trial, a condition of his plea bargain. Nuckolls testified he had been friends with Sandusky for about 11 years. In 2009 he approached Sandusky, who had real estate and broker experience, about opening a medical marijuana dispensary.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Robinson asked Nuckolls if, in June 2009, he was working as a confidential informant for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

"I was not," Nuckolls, who added that he talked with the agency, along with San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office and the DEA, and worked with them, but never worked as an informant.

Robinson then pointed out that Nuckolls had an agreement with the DA's Office at that time and after helping them with cases had a felony charge dismissed. Read more.

4. We won the presidency, Obama will direct his DOJ to persue

real criminals rather than waste resources on this.

This will have more than one benefit, more resources to bring charges against HSBC for money laundering and terrorist support, finally some resources to bring charges of fraud against those that have used robo signing and other schemes to steal people's homes, and will finally redirect resources away from those that would use those DOJ resources to place law abiding citizens in prison over archaic laws that have been successfully nullified (by any reasonable standard) in some of our more enlightened states.

I hear this guy "Holder" is a D loyal to Obama (his name has been floated for the job starting in 2013) and so will surely correct what Bush's DOJ has been doing these last four years.